Detailed Analysis and Appendix

Boston Gazette and Country Journal report on Monday, March 12, 1770, of the facts of the March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre:

A few minutes after nine o’clock four youths, named Edward Archibald, William Merchant, Francis Archibald, and John Leech, jun., came down Cornhill together, and separating at Doctor Loring’s corner, the two former were passing the narrow alley leading Mr. Murray’s barrack in which was a soldier brandishing a broad sword of an uncommon size against the walls, out of which he struck fire plentifully. A person of mean countenance armed with a large cudgel bore him company. Edward Archibald admonished Mr. Merchant to take care of the sword, on which the soldier turned round and struck Archibald on the arm, then pushed at Merchant and pierced through his clothes inside the arm close to the armpit and grazed the skin. Merchant then struck the soldier with a short stick he had; and the other person ran to the barrack and brought with him two soldiers, one armed with a pair of tongs, the other with a shovel. He with the tongs pursued Archibald back through the alley, collared and laid him over the head with the tongs. The noise brought people together; and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knocked the soldier down but let him get up again; and more lads gathering, drove them back to the barrack where the boys stood some time as it were to keep them in. In less than a minute ten or twelve of them came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs, and bayonets and set upon the unarmed boys and young folk who stood them a little while but, finding the inequality of their equipment, dispersed. 

On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the matter; and entering the alley from dock square, heard the latter part of the combat; and when the boys had dispersed he met the ten or twelve soldiers aforesaid rushing down the alley towards the square and asked them if they intended to murder people? They answered Yes, by G-d, root and branch! With that one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club which was repeated by another; and being unarmed, he turned to go off and received a wound on the left shoulder which reached the bone and gave him much pain. Retreating a few steps, Mr. Atwood met two officers and said, gentlemen, what is the matter? They answered, you’ll see by and by. Immediately after, those heroes appeared in the square, asking where were the boogers? Where were the cowards? But notwithstanding their fierceness to naked men, one of them advanced towards a youth who had a split of a raw stave in his hand and said, damn them, here is one of them. But the young man seeing a person near him with a drawn sword and good cane ready to support him, held up his stave in defiance; and they quietly passed by him up the little alley by Mr. Silsby’s to King Street where they attacked single and unarmed persons till they raised much clamour, and then turned down Cornhill Street, insulting all they met in like manner and pursuing some to their very doors. Thirty or forty persons, mostly lads, being by this means gathered in King Street, Capt. Preston with a party of men with charged bayonets, came from the main guard to the commissioner’s house, the soldiers pushing their bayonets, crying, make way! They took place by the custom house and, continuing to push to drive the people off pricked some in several places, on which they were clamorous and, it is said, threw snow balls. On this, the Captain commanded them to fire; and more snow balls coming, he again said, damn you, fire, be the consequence what it will! One soldier then fired, and a townsman with a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his firelock; and, rushing forward, aimed a blow at the Captain’s head which grazed his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm. However, the soldiers continued the fire successively till seven or eight or, as some say, eleven guns were discharged. 

 By this fatal manoeuvre three men were laid dead on the spot and two more struggling for life; but what showed a degree of cruelty unknown to British troops, at least since the house of Hanover has directed their operation, was an attempt to fire upon or push with their bayonets the persons who undertook to remove the slain and wounded! 

Mr. Benjamin Leigh, now undertaker in the Delph manufactory, came up and after some conversation with Capt. Preston relative to his conduct in this affair, advised him to draw off his men, with which he complied. The dead are Mr. Samuel Gray, killed on the spot, the ball entering his head and beating off a large portion of his skull. 

A mulatto man named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence and was here in order to go for North Carolina, also killed instantly, two balls entering his breast, one of them in special goring the right lobe of the lungs and a great part of the liver most horribly. 

Mr. James Caldwell, mate of Capt. Morton’s vessel, in like manner killed by two balls entering his back. 

Mr. Samuel Maverick, a promising youth of seventeen years of age, son of the widow Maverick, and an apprentice to Mr. Greenwood, ivory-turner, mortally wounded; a ball went through his belly and was cut out at his back. He died the next morning. 

A lad named Christopher Monk, about seventeen years of age, an apprentice to Mr. Walker, shipwright, wounded; a ball entered his back about four inches above the left kidney near the spine and was cut out of the breast on the same side. Apprehended he will die. 

A lad named John Clark, about seventeen years of age, whose parents live at Medford, and an apprentice to Capt. Samuel Howard of this town, wounded; a ball entered just above his groin and came out at his hip on the opposite side. Apprehended he will die. 

Mr. Edward Payne of this town, merchant, standing at his entry door received a ball in his arm which shattered some of the bones. 

Mr. John Green, tailor, coming up Leverett’s Lane, received a ball just under his hip and lodged in the under part of his thigh, which was extracted. 

Mr. Robert Patterson, a seafaring man, who was the person that had his trousers shot through in Richardson’s affair, wounded; a ball went through his right arm, and he suffered a great loss of blood. 

Mr. Patrick Carr, about thirty years of age, who worked with Mr. Field, leather breeches-maker in Queen Street, wounded; a ball entered near his hip and went out at his side. [Carr would also die.]

A lad named David Parker, an apprentice to Mr. Eddy, the wheelwright, wounded; a ball entered his thigh.

 

Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee’s Order to Surrender to John Brown:

Signatures for Shoeless Joe Jackson:

Text of Clarence Darrow’s July 4, 1923 Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune (printed by the Tribune on its front page):

Darrow Asks W.J. Bryan to Answer These, by Clarence Darrow to the Chicago Tribune, page 1, July 4, 1923, see, e.g., http://www.geocities.com/quotequeen81/letters/darrow.html. See also, Letters of the Century: America, 1900—1999, edited by Lisa Grunwald & Stephen J. Adler, page 164, New York: Dial Press, 1999 (for additional questions and article title missing from the Internet site).

That’s it. The end.

If you’re a journalist:

Books aren’t like movies, where they put the bloopers at the end of the reel.

It’s ok to close the book and put it back on the shelf now.

Or better yet, give it to a friend.

Thanks for reading.

Goodbye.

[Yep, that was a period, but stay tuned for the sequels.]

July 4, 1923

Editor of the Tribune: I was very much interested in Mr. Bryan’s letter to The Tribune and in your editorial reply. I have likewise followed Mr. Bryan’s efforts to shut out the teachings of science from the public schools and his questionnaires to various college professors who believe in evolution and still profess Christianity. No doubt his questions to the professors, if answered, would tend to help clear the issue, and likewise a few questions to Mr. Bryan and the fundamentalists, if fairly answered, might serve the interests of reaching the truth--all of this assumes that truth is desirable.

For this reason I think it would be helpful if Mr. Bryan would answer the following questions:
Do you believe in the literal interpretation of the whole Bible?

Is the account of the creation of the earth and all life in Genesis literally true, or is it an allegory?

Was the earth made in six literal days, measured by the revolution of the earth on its axis?

Was the sun made on the fourth day to give light to the earth by day and the moon made on the same day to give light by night, and were the stars made for the benefit of the earth?

Did God create man on the sixth day?

Did God rest on the seventh day?

Did God place man in the Garden of Eden and tell him he could eat of every tree except the tree of knowledge?

Was Eve literally made from the rib of Adam?

Did the serpent induce Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge?

Did the eating of this fruit cause Adam and Eve to know that they were naked?

Did God curse the serpent for tempting Eve and decree that thereafter he should go on his belly?

How did he travel before that time?

Did God tell Eve that thereafter he would multiply the sorrows of all women and that their husbands should rule over them?

Did God send a flood covering the whole earth, even the tops of the highest mountains and destroy “all flesh that has the breath of life,” excepting the inmates of the ark?

Did God command Noah to build and ark for him and his family and to take on board a male and female of every living species on earth?

Did he build the ark and gather the pairs of all animals on the earth and the food and water necessary to preserve them?

As there were no ships in those days, except the ark, how did Noah gather them from all the continents and lands of the earth?

Did he then cause it to rain forty days and forty nights and destroy every living thing on the earth?

[While I wouldn’t presume to alter Darrow’s questions, it occurs to me to ask Bryan whether God also intended to destroy the fish in the ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and oceans.]

Did all these living things enter the ark on the second month and 17th day of the month?
Were all the high mountains on all the earth covered?

Did the waters prevail on the earth for 150 days?

Did the ark rest on Mount Ararat in the seventh month and the tenth day of the month?

Did God set a rainbow in the heavens for a token that the world would not again be destroyed by flood?

Was this the first rainbow that ever appeared?

According to the old testament, was this not about 1,750 years B.C.?

Is not history full of proof that all colors and kinds of people lived over large and remote parts of the earth within fifty years after this time?

Were the pairs of animals sent to every quarter of the earth after the flood?

How could many species that are found nowhere but in Australia or other far off places get there and why did they not stop on the way?

Was there any more water on the earth in Noah’s day than any other time before or since?

Is not all the water that falls drawn from the reservoirs of water on the earth?

Is it possible to increase the amount of water in any part of the earth without drawing it from another part?

Does not water seek its level?

Shortly after the flood was the whole earth of one language?

Did the inhabitants begin to build the Tower of Babel so that they might reach the heavens?

Did God confound their language so they could not complete the tower?

How high would the tower have had to be to reach the heavens?

Was the confounding of tongues at the Tower of Babel the cause of the many languages spoken by the people of the earth?

Did the Lord prepare a big fish to swallow Jonah and did he lie for three days and three nights in the whale’s belly when he was spewed out on dry land?

Was Lot’s wife turned into a literal pillar of salt for turning back and looking at Sodom and Gomorrah when she was fleeing from their destruction?

Did Balaam’s ass speak to him in human language?

Did the walls of Jericho fall down flat from the soldiers and priests marching around it and blowing on the ram’s horn?

Did the sun stand still to give Joshua time to fight a battle?

If the sun had stood still, would that have lengthened the day?

If instead of the sun standing still, the earth had stopped revolving on its axis, what would have happened to the earth and all life thereon?

Under the biblical chronology [by Bishop Usher], was not the earth created less than 6,000 years ago?

Are there not evidences in writing and hieroglyphics and the evidence of man’s handiwork which show that man has been on the earth more than 50,000 years?

Were there not many flourishing civilizations on the earth 10,000 years ago?

According to the same chronology, was not Adam created less than 6,000 years ago?

Are there no human remains that carry their age on the earth back to at least 100,000 years?

Has not man probably been on earth for 500,000 years?

Does not geology show by fossil remains, by the cutting away of rock for river beds, by deposit of all sorts, that the earth is much more than a million years and probably many million years old?

Did Christ drive devils out of two sick men and did the devils request that they should be driven into a large herd of swine and were the devils driven into the swine and did the swine run off a high bank, and were they drowned in the sea?

Was this literally true, or does it simply show the attitude of the age toward the cause of sickness and affliction?

Can one not be a Christian without believing in the literal truth of the narrations of the Bible here mentioned?

Would you forbid the public schools from teaching anything in conflict with the literal statement referred to?

Questions might be extended indefinitely, but a specific answer to these might make it clear what one must believe to be a “fundamentalist.”

Very truly yours,

Clarence Darrow

Page from Hunter’s Civic Biology textbook:

Lindy Chamberlain’s strike letter from jail:

 

O.J. Simpson’s Bruno Magli shoeprint evidence: